3 Ways To Get Your Store Holiday-Ready

There’s been a lot of talk about the holiday season around here lately. Perhaps, that’s because the holiday shopping season is here! At Canadian POS Corporation, we know a thing or two about holiday shoppers. Our clients have proven to us that most Canadians enjoy paying for their holiday purchases using their credit cards and debit cards. We’re also well aware that Canadians enjoy purchasing gift cards during the holiday season.

As a business owner, it’s certainly a wise choice to both offer customers those payment options and offer gift cards as a purchasing choice. Needless to say, shopping will be picking up over the coming weeks and it would be in your best interests to have your place of business as well prepared as possible. Have you taken any of the tips that have been listed in our recent blogs? If not, we have a few more that may help you out.

Here are three ways to get your store holiday-ready:

1. Create a holiday special. This tip isn’t all that inventive. It’s one of those tried-and-true, go-to methods of attracting more customers. Quite obviously, there will be many shoppers looking for discounts during the holiday shopping season. Why not create a package of your products and sell them as a bundle for a price that discounts each of the individual items? It’s a great way to outshine your competition.

On EarlyBirdStrategy.com, Olivia Raymer advocates this idea. “According to the National Retail Federation, November and December can account for as much as 30% of a retailer’s annual sales,” she reveals, “Customers are ready to buy and your competition is figuring out their best offers. Creating a holiday offer does not mean you have to jump straight to discounting. Whether you add an upgrade/gift, promo code, free shipping, bundle, partnership with another company etc. do what fits your company’s style.”

2. Prepare your website for the big online shopping days of the year. We all know that online shopping is incredibly popular. But there are those particular days of the year when the internet is the ultimate destination for savings. The increasingly popular Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday, is the best example. It would be a great idea to promote a Cyber Monday sale of some kind on your company website.

On Entrepreneur.com, Keith Tanaka recommends this move. “If you sell products or services online, make sure you are prepared for the uptick in traffic between Black Friday and Christmas Day, especially Cyber Monday,” he advises, “Online merchants can see up to a 200 percent increase in traffic over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and according to a recent NRF survey, this year will bring 5 percent more sales than the last.”

3. Deck the halls! This one is easy. If you haven’t yet begun to hang Christmas decorations and the like around your store, you’re missing a huge opportunity to spread around the holiday cheer. It’s infectious. When people see that your place of business is holiday-ready, they will better associate it with a place to shop for gifts. The same can be said about your website. Contact your web designer to ensure that holiday imagery is apparent all over your site.

“Whether you have a real space to decorate or just a virtual world, having a theme and design for your holiday communication is a great idea,” insists Raymer, “Show customers that you’re feeling festive, but make sure it matches your company’s design aesthetic. Feeling unsure in this department? Go minimal and stick to one color. While Pinterest is full of design ideas, a quick tip is to go back to last year’s emails from brands you admire and see what you liked/disliked about their holiday ‘decor’.”

For more information about selling gift cards or securing an e-commerce solution for your company website, call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.